Ryan proposes big Medicare changes

The House GOP 2015 budget, penned by the Wisconsin Republican, will seek to shave federal spending by $5 trillion by offering changes to social welfare programs, ending government ownership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and repealing Obamacare.

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Unveiled on Tuesday, Ryan’s budget is little more than a political document to serve as an outline of Republican priorities going into the November election.

But, as always, the document could set off a round of intraparty squabbling due to the House Budget Committee chairman’s broad proposed changes to Medicare, including a controversial proposal subsidizing private health insurance for those 55 and younger. That talking point alone is likely to be a source of major hay for House Democrats, who intend to use the budget as a weapon in the fight for the House majority.

Ryan said the budget serves to show voters that Republicans are not just an “opposition party.”

“We believe it is not enough for us just to be an opposition party, we need to be a proposition party. We need to be the alternative party,” Ryan said on a conference call with reporters. “We need to show the country the right way forward to get this economy growing.”

The document — Ryan’s last as budget chairman — also helps define the 2012 vice presidential nominee’s own fiscal vision as he seeks to map out his own political future, whether in the House or in a bid for higher office.

After being marked up in committee, the budget will hit the House floor next week, GOP leadership staff has said. But it won’t go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) doesn’t plan on introducing a budget for next year.

There’s no real room for major budgetary reforms, anyway, as Ryan’s plan honors the $1.014 trillion discretionary spending limit established under the two-year bipartisan budget agreement Ryan crafted last year with Murray that Congress passed in December.

To fall within those guidelines, Ryan increased defense spending by some $480 billion over 10 years while slashing nondefense spending to $791 billion less than the levels set by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Because the spending caps were predetermined last year, the budget serves as even more of a political messaging document than in previous years. Senate Democrats and Republicans joined together to defeat the Ryan budget last year after Murray brought the proposal to the floor for a symbolic vote. There is no indication the newest proposal would receive wide support in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Democrats were quick to dismiss the budget as “class warfare” and “reckless.”

“This budget is the Republican declaration of class warfare — it protects the elites at the expense of the rest of the country,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. “By rigging the game in favor of the wealthy and privileged special interests while dismantling the ladder of opportunity for everyone else, it violates the fundamental promise that every hardworking American should have a fair shot at success.”